My Wednesday Pantry-Chicken Three Ways

      I get bored with chicken but as an easy to cook and have on hand staple, I often use more as an ingredient after a first meal. On DH's shopping trip, he bought a 2 pound package of tenderloins, basically, smaller portions of chicken breasts. I like this size as they need very little seasoning and cook in no time at all on the stove top or the oven. An odd amount, but the package contained 11 pieces of chicken. I cooked the lot at one, but five I did slightly different for meal one.

Meal one: Parmesan Chicken with side of  baked pasta.

     Once again no real recipe, but after I coated five pieces in  olive oil, I dipped each one in a mixture of breadcrumbs, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, a pinch of salt, black pepper, and  parmesan cheese. I sprinkled a bit more parmesan on to.

     Meanwhile, I layered lasagna style leftover crushed tomatoes from the pasta fagiole soup made a week ago, seasoned well with garlic pepper, and Italian seasoning,, then some of the mini penne, sliced fresh zucchini,  a cheese mixture of the 3/4 cup or so of cottage cheese I had left, an egg, and more seasoning and parmesan, and the other half of the sauce on top. I baked for 35 minutes at 350, then put the chicken in  the oven with it and baked it all for another 20 minutes, topped the pasta with the bits of mozzarella I had eft, and finished it off for 10 minutes more. I made a pie plates worth of pasta, and it was a dinner hit with DH, served with one of his favorite ways I make chicken.

Mini penne pasta was cooked between a layer of sauce,
and vegetables, cheese, and more sauce.

DH's three parmesan chicken tenderloins.

Meal two: Chicken, broccoli, cheese and rice hotdish

     I've shared this version of the universal hotdish recipe. Two cups cooked rice,  diced chicken (I used three of the tenderloins), chopped or larger as you like broccoli, 4-6 ounces cheddar cheese, i can cream of chicken soup with 3/4 cans of milk, heavily seasoned with pepper, garlic and onion powder Mix all together and just bake. So easy, and the cheese broccoli, chicken combo with the rice is comfort food at it's finest. 

Meal three: Chicken salad wraps

     This I just made early this morning with the final three tenderloins, cut in  cubes, mixed with 1 stalk finely chopped celery, about 1/4 of a chopped smallish onion, a handful of craisins, 3 tablespoons of mayo (approximately) lot's of pepper. Mix it all well and let it sit for a good 15 minutes, then stir again (celery lets of some water and that then blends better without getting too much sogginess later. DH will take of his lunch in two large tortillas, wrapped burrito style. I've mentioned DH has a good appetite, so normally this would be enough for two people, particularly if served with fruit or soup. This is really good as the based for a pasta salad.

     The package of tenderloin was $5.68 total. If I really sat down with a calculator, I would guess all the other ingredients, down to the stalk of celery, would be around $5 worth of ingredients. So for under $12, we got five big meals (plus I had leftover pasta yesterday and will have leftover hotdish for today for lunch), for $2.40 a meal, not counting the leftovers. We'll be eating like this a lot over the winter, trying to stretch both the meat but also the ideas to keep some variety. Do you have any  favorite chicken recipes?